A while ago I thought that the people of A3 could contribute our favourite recipes and build up a collection for others to try. It's not until now that I actually got around to starting it off. Summer has begun down here in the Southern Hemisphere, and so it's been very uncomfortably hot. However, today it's overcast, and I'm sure rain will fall at some point soon. What better day to do some baking?

I start off the A3 Cookbook with some cookies I made today. I've adapted the basic chocolate chip cookie recipe from the Edmonds Cookery Book, a feature of New Zealand cooking for over a century.

NOTE: The cookbook is surprisingly available on Amazon. However, its price is a staggering USD128.00, when it retails here in New Zealand for a more reasonable USD13.00 or so.

Because Piwa's son's digestive system is unable to process many sugars, cooking with him in mind can involve some interesting experimentation. This is one of them, using glucose powder and honey in place of the sugar and condensed milk respectively. I found them very sweet, so you may reduce the honey if wished.

Cream butter, glucose powder, honey and vanilla in a bowl until light and fluffy. Sift flour and baking powder together and add to mixture with chocolate chips. Roll tablespoonsful of mixture into balls and place on a greased oven tray and flatten with a floured fork. Bake at 180 °C / 350 °F for 20 minutes. Makes about 25.

* 'Sugar-free' in the sense that it doesn't contain regular sugar.

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Preheat oven to 350. Spray loaf pans with vegetable oil.
Beat together eggs, sugar, strawberries, and vegetable oil.
Stir together the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Stir into the egg mixture.
Stir in nuts (if using)
Pour batter into pans.
Bake one hour or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
Remove and allow to sit for five minutes before removing.

In large dutch oven or kettle, combine potatoes, onion, carrots, salt, pepper, parsley, and broth powder. Cover with water 1" above vegetables. Cook until tender, about 15-20 minutes. Do not drain. Scald milk in another pot by heating until tiny bubbles form around the edge of the pan. Remove 1 1/2 cups milk and add butter and flour. Stir with wire whisk. Add remaining hot milk to undrained veggies, then stir in the thickened milk. Stir until well blended. Simmer for 15 minutes on low heat. This is very good with home-made bread or cornbread.

Mix the dry stuffing & cheese together in a large bowl.
Cook the 2 pkgs of frozen spinach according to directions on the pkg (I microwave the spinach in a 1&1/2 quart glass dish, but you can also cook it in a saucepan on the stove.)
Mix the melted butter and beaten eggs together and put into the dish or saucepan with the cooked spinach and mix again.
Then mix this spinach mixture into the large bowl with the dry mixture.
Cover this bowl containing all the ingredients and chill in refrigerator over night, or at least a few hours.
After the mixture is chilled, so it's easier to handle, shape into 1" balls and freeze.
The next day preheat oven to 350 degrees then place the frozen spinach balls in a single layer in a casserole dish and bake at 350 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes.

Enjoy!!

Addendum:
If you're rushed, you can skip the part about forming the mixture into balls and just cook it in a casserole dish.

The spinach balls are good with pretty much any meat you could serve... fish, chicken, turkey, whatever.

Cook sausage.
Place bread in bottom of a 9x13 inch pan.
Arrange sausage over bread, top with grated cheese
Beat eggs, milk, jalapenos, salt and pepper together and pour over sausage layer, saturating all bread. Cover and refridgerate overnight. Preheat oven to 320. Uncover and bake for 1 1/2 hours.

* Use gluten-free flour and baking powder if necessary. It seems this causes the scones to not rise much (or it might be that I overkneaded the dough), but they still taste good!

Preheat oven to 220 °C (430 °F). Mix baking powder and salt into flour. Rub in butter until it resembles breadcrumbs*. Make well in the centre of mixture, and pour milk into it. Quickly mix with a knife into a soft dough. Turn onto a floured surface and knead lightly. Roll out or flatten into a large rectangle about an inch thick. Cut into squares (or roughly even-sized shapes) and place on a non-stick tray. Bake for 12 minutes, or until golden.

* If you have a food processor, it's perfect for this task. Just pulse the mixture until it looks right.

Note: I think scones are best when they're fresh and hot, spread with butter and jam or honey.

1. Heat olive oil in a skillet on medium heat.
2. When the oil is hot, add the red pepper flakes. The flakes add a little bit of heat, but not so much that it ruins the taste of the shrimp.
3. Add the garlic and saute for 1 minute.
4. Add the shrimp; keep sauteing on the same heat. Cook for about 3 minutes.
5. Add the paprika, salt, and pepper.
6. Continue to saute the shrimp until cooked. When the shrimp begin to turn pink and curl they are ready; remove from heat.
7. Add the lemon juice and parsley.

Serve in a bowl and eat with some fresh bread. The bread tastes amazing when it soaks up the oil sauce.